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Slow-cooked shin of beef with portabellini mushrooms and glazed shallots with thyme
Serves 6 Starters and mains
Ingredients
- 6x200-250g or 3x400-500g pieces shin of beef with marrowbone
- 1 bottle fairly robust red wine large bunch fresh thyme
- 3tbsp flour, seasoned with salt and black pepper
- olive oil for frying
- 800ml beef stock
- 2-3tbsp tomato purée
- 2tbsp Worcestershire sauce
- 100ml Madeira (preferably Malmsey)
- 2 medium onions, finely chopped
- 5-6 carrots, cut in bite-sized chunks
- 1 scant tsp caster sugar
- 200g portabellini mushrooms, sliced
- 4-5 garlic cloves, separated but not peeled
- 2 bay leaves
- 50g butter
- glazed shallots (see opposite) chopped parsley, to garnish
Method
Lay the pieces of beef in a nonmetallic dish and pour over the wine. Add a few thyme sprigs and leave to marinate overnight.
Preheat the oven to 160°C/ 325°F/Gas 3. Lift the beef pieces from the wine (but keep the wine), pat them dry on kitchen paper and dust with a little seasoned flour. Heat a small amount of oil in a fairly deep frying pan, brown the pieces of beef all over and transfer them to a large ovenproof casserole dish. Strain the wine through a fine sieve into the frying pan in which you have just fried the beef, stirring to incorporate any sticky bits from the bottom of the pan. Bubble the wine, skimming occasionally, until reduced by almost half, then add the stock, tomato purée, Worcestershire sauce and Madeira. Simmer for a further 5 minutes then pour over the beef.
Rinse the pan, dry it thoroughly and sauté the onions and carrots in a little olive oil with the sugar and seasoning for 3-4 minutes until nicely glazed. Add to the casserole with the beef, together with the sliced mushrooms, whole garlic cloves, bay leaves and remaining thyme. Cover the casserole and bake in the oven for 1½hours, or until the meat is tender.
With a slotted spoon, transfer the cooked meat with the vegetables and flavourings to an ovenproof serving dish. Bubble the cooking liquid on the hob to reduce by about half, making a thick and syrupy sauce. Pour this through a fine-meshed sieve into a bowl, squashing all the bits in the sieve with the back of a spoon to extract every last bit of flavour, then pour the sauce back into the pan. Stir in the butter, correct the seasoning and pour over the meat and vegetables.
The beef can be covered and refrigerated overnight at this point. To finish, add the glazed shallots, (see opposite) reheat and scatter over the chopped parsley. Serve with horseradish potatoes. Encourage people to eat or share the marrow, either forking it from each bone section to eat as it comes or mash into the sauce.
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